Review Summary: Infinite Arms shows Band of Horses attempting to integrate their haunting soundscapes with a more folk-oriented approach. While the end result produces some undeniable strengths, the album as a whole ends up falling short of previous watermarks.
One word often used to describe Band of Horses is earnest. This can be derived mostly from their harmonious simplicity, whether it is singer Ben Bridewell’s unadorned yet powerfully delivered lyrics or the subtle interplay between richly melodic guitar textures (try to listen to “Window Blues” on a warm summer night and NOT think that everything is right in the world). After the young quintet surprised the Indie world with the highly acclaimed Everything All the Time (2006) and Cease to Begin (2007), it was only natural that a major label debut would follow. Infinite Arms shows Band of Horses attempting to integrate their haunting soundscapes with a more folk-oriented approach. While the end result produces some undeniable strengths, the album as a whole ends up falling short of the high watermark left by their previous attempts.
The main area that creates both the album’s strong and weak points is in the production. While Phil Elk returned as the producer for Infinite Arms, the overall sound is discernibly different from the band’s previous albums. This time around, Elk has used a multiplicity of sonic textures to create a more subtle and warmer sound. This is plainly evident from the opening track “Factory”, when a bright string arrangement accompanied by a plain acoustic guitar set the stage for a lush Americana-esque atmosphere. Similarly, the vocal layering has been taken to a whole new level. While past albums occasionally played with accompaniments for Bridewell’s soaring vocal melodies, Infinite Arms uses them as a primary constituent of the overall sound (I can only imagine how many vocal tracks were recorded to produce the striking harmonies in “Neighbor”). The end result adds considerably to the warm folksy sound that permeates each track, and adds new dimensions to Band of Horses’ overall aural palette.
For all the positives that these changes produce however, there are substantial drawbacks. The changes effected to Bridewell’s vocal melodies account for a large part of the problem. The rich emotive nature of his voice was part of what was so captivating about Band of Horses’s first two albums. Even such songs like “Monsters” and “Marry Song”, which otherwise could be described as instrumentally plodding, took on powerful new dimensions with the addition of Bridewell’s reverb-soaked crooning standing out prominently in the mix. Despite the rich textures obtained by the vocal layering described above, Bridewell’s main vocal presence has effectively been minimized. Even the soaring choruses of “Compliments” never seem to reach the raw power present in similarly energetic tracks like “The Great Salt Lake”. The higher octave range of Bridewell’s voice also is used much less this time around, which tends to add to a less emphatic presentation overall. The slower tracks do a good job of demonstrating the difference this can make, with “Evening Kitchen” and “Infinite Arms” coming across as downright boring while “For Annabelle” shines, in part due to a starkly vibrant vocal presentation which is more in line with their former sound.
The biggest problem with Infinite Arms is that is just doesn’t seem to have the emotional core of past releases. These aren’t bad songs by any means, but the overall presentation doesn’t always bring out their intended strengths. Hopefully, this just proves to be a transitory album between the indie and major label environments, and that Band of Horses can continue to develop their sound while using what made them so relevant in the first place to their advantage.
